Systems and methods for on/off state control for network nodes

Abstract

Presented are systems and methods for on/off state control for network nodes. A network node can receive an on/off indication from a wireless communication node. The network node can determine, according to the on/off indication, an on/off state of the network node to support signal forwarding of one or more signals.

1 . A method comprising:
 receiving, by a network node, an on/off indication from a wireless communication node; and   determining, by the network node according to the on/off indication, an on/off state of the network node to support signal forwarding of one or more signals.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the on/off indication comprises a first indication and a second indication. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the on/off state comprises at least one of:
 an on/off state of the network node;   an on/off state of a group of network nodes;   an on/off state of one or more antenna ports of the network node;   an on/off state of one or more beam indexes of the network node;   an on/off state of one or more serving sectors of the network node; or   an on/off state of one or more components of the network node.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the on/off state further comprises the on/off state of at least one of following links:
 a first communication link from a wireless communication node to the network node;   a second communication link from the network node to the wireless communication node;   a first forwarding link from the wireless communication node to the network node;   a second forwarding link from the network node to the wireless communication node;   a third forwarding link from the network node to the wireless communication device; or   a fourth forwarding link from the wireless communication device to the network node.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 receiving, by the network node, one or both of the first indication and the second indication via at least one of: at least one downlink control information (DCI) signaling, at least one medium access control control element (MAC CE) signaling, at least one radio resource control (RRC) or at least one operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) signaling.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the first indication indicates whether or not to enable the signal forwarding for:
 a channel of common transmissions, or   a channel of all transmissions.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the channel of common transmissions includes at least one of: a synchronization signal block (SSB), a control resource set (CORESET) #0, a physical random access channel (PRACH), a system information block of type 1 (SIB1), or a group common physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 determining, by the network node, that the first indication indicates to disable the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein when the first indication indicates to disable the signal forwarding:
 the network node ignores the second indication when determining the on/off state of the network node to support the signal forwarding, or   the wireless communication node withholds sending the second indication to the network node.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein at least one of:
 the signal forwarding is disabled within a duration of a time domain resource associated with the first indication, the time domain resource being implicitly determined or explicitly determined, or   the signal forwarding remains disabled until another first indication is received that indicates to enable the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , comprising:
 determining, by the network node, that the first indication indicates to enable the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 determining, by the network node when the first indication indicates to enable the signal forwarding, the on/off state of the network node according to the second indication's overriding or changing of the first indication's enablement of the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 determining, by the network node when the first indication indicates to enable the signal forwarding, the on/off state of the network node according to an on state of an on/off pattern for a channel of common transmissions.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising determining the on/off state of the network node by adding an on portion of the on/off pattern of the channel of common transmissions, to non-overlapping on portions indicated by the second indication. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein at least one of:
 the signal forwarding is enabled within a duration of a time domain resource associated with the first indication, the time domain resource being implicitly determined or explicitly determined, or   the signal forwarding remains enabled until at least one of: another first indication or the second indication is received that indicates to disable the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the first indication comprises at least one of:
 a first parameter to configure the enabling or disabling of the signal forwarding, or   a second parameter to configure a time domain resource for the enabling or disabling of the signal forwarding.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the second parameter comprises at least one of: a start time, a pattern, a start and length indicator value (SLIV), a time offset, a time domain resource allocation (TDRA) index, a duty cycle, a duration or a periodicity. 
     
     
         18 . A method comprising:
 sending, by a wireless communication node to a network node, an on/off indication; and   causing the network node to determine, according to the on/off indication, an on/off state of the network node to support signal forwarding of one or more signals.   
     
     
         19 . A wireless communication node, comprising:
 at least one processor configured to:
 send, via a transmitter to a network node, an on/off indication; and 
 causing the network node to determine, according to the on/off indication, an on/off state of the network node to support signal forwarding of one or more signals. 
   
     
     
         20 . A network node, comprising:
 at least one processor configured to:
 receive, via a receiver, an on/off indication from a wireless communication node; and 
 determine, according to the on/off indication, an on/off state of the network node to support signal forwarding of one or more signals.